LONGMONT -- Twin Peaks Mall is in foreclosure, with a sale date of Jan. 4. But our local retail center is far from the only one -- along the Front Range or around the nation -- to find itself in dire financial straits.

A look around at some of the other large retail centers in the region that have fallen on hard time reveals some parallels to Twin Peaks, and the varied ways that each city chose to deal with the situation.

Westminster Mall

Though it didn't exactly plan it that way, the city of Westminster now owns Westminster Mall. In May, the city paid $22 million to buy the 108-acre site from the Kansas City, Mo.-based company that built it.

The massive steel support beams at Westminster Mall are no match for the business end of a backhoe in this July 2011 photo. In May the city of Westminster had purchased the mall with the intent of spurring its redevelopment. Photo courtesy of the city of Westminster

Technically, the mall's owner is the Westminster Economic Development Authority, according to city manager Brent McFall. But WEDA, essentially, is city hall: McFall serves as the organization's executive director, and the Westminster City Council is WEDA's board of directors.

Westminster Mall opened in 1977 at the highly visible interchange of Sheridan Boulevard and U.S. Highway 36. At its height, the mall was home to about 300 stores, and it was a big moneymaker for the city. Then, a little over a decade ago, the city and the mall's owner decided that to compete with FlatIron Crossing, which was due to open soon in Broomfield, Westminster Mall needed an upgrade.

The city put in about $7 million and the owner another $2.

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5 million to spruce up the mall, but it was not a major renovation, McFall said. The improvements -- better lighting, new skylights, a new floor, fixing the parking lot -- were designed merely to keep the mall competitive for a few more years, he said. Essentially, the city was buying some time.

"The renovations were complete and FlatIron was just opening, so we were in a new era," said McFall, who joined the city in 2001. "Westminster competed fairly well for four to five years.

In this file photo from 2010, a going-out-of-business sign hangs in the window of a storefront in The Promenade Shops at Centerra in Loveland. Most tenants remained in business while the center went through the foreclosure process. Reporter-Herald file photo

Over time, though, as retailers had to make a decision about one store versus two, and things like that, that's when we began to see an increase in vacancy rate."

The latter part of the past decade saw a steady decline in occupancy and tax revenue, McFall said.

In 2009, WEDA declared the mall blighted as part of creating an urban renewal planning area, setting the stage for redevelopment. The authority also started acquiring small parcels on the mall site. But these actions didn't sit well with the mall's ownership. In 2010, the owners sued the city, saying its actions had left the mall "unmarketable."

Less than a year later, as part of a settlement of the lawsuit, the city found itself acquiring the mall.

"What (WEDA) is doing is simply acting as property-acquisition agents," McFall said, adding that the city intends to sell the mall to a private developer, or developers, and partner with them on overhauling the property.

"(The decision) was easy," McFall said. "And the reason is Westminster Mall sits right in the heart of Westminster. ... It's been an integral part of the fabric of the Westminster community for many years."

A common theme WEDA had been hearing from residents was "What are you going to do about it? It's too key a part of the community for the city to take no action -- to just let it fall into vacancy and disrepair.

"In many respects, it was personal. It was like, 'What's happening to my mall?'"

McFall estimates the city has spent "tens of thousands of dollars" studying the best use for the site, and it has come to the conclusion that mixed use is the answer. What exactly that looks like will be up to the developer, however.

"We have actually done some analysis and planning work ourselves. Not to design a site, but simply to examine what the site could be and further, what that site could accommodate.

"We don't envision a suburban shopping center on that site," McFall said. "It will have a retail component. But what we envision is more of a downtown environment with a mixture of office, retail and residential."

The city already has halted discussions with one potential redevelopment partner because that company wanted it to stay a retail center, he said. But the city has found another company that shares the city's vision -- a "big national player," McFall said -- and he's hoping to announce a partnership on a first phase of redevelopment before the end of the year. If not, the city will keep searching for the right partner.

"We're willing to be, as WEDA, the patient money," McFall said. "We don't have to flip the property quickly."

The Greeley Mall

The Greeley Mall also dates back to the late 1970s. The mall's performance had been strong, according to Bruce Biggi, the economic development manager for the city, until the end of the past decade, when a couple of things happened. First, the Great Recession started in late 2008, which quickly had a crippling effect on retail spending. Then, the following year, Dillard's closed its Greeley Mall store.

For the city, the timing couldn't have been worse. It had already gone through all the steps needed to create an urban renewal authority with the intent of partnering with the mall's then-owner, GK Development, on redeveloping the mall using tax increment financing.

"We started that clock because GK Development ... was very interested in doing a redevelopment, but they, like a lot of other mall owners, fell on hard times," Biggi said.

The Greeley Mall went into foreclosure, and in January LNR Properties, the lender, took over ownership.

"Most of my work now is finding a redevelopment partner for that property," Biggi said.

LNR will not be that partner, he said, but the city has entertained discussions with several potential redevelopment partners.

"(This) is occurring not just in our mall but in malls all across America," Biggi said. "We clearly know that that mall needs to reinvent itself."

The east side of the mall where Dillard's was is basically a ghost town, Biggi said, but the west side, where Sears, J.C. Penney and the Cinemark 12 are, continues to generate strong sales tax dollars for the city. That's helping the city to be patient in finding a redevelopment partner.

And the city isn't convinced that the past use of the property, as simply a retail center, needs to be the future use of the property. There are a lot of uses that would complement retail, and the city's sharing its ideas with potential partners. For example, Biggi said, the University of Northern Colorado has long discussed an upgraded athletic complex. Perhaps that could be part of the redevelopment plans. Or, given the mall property borders the city's university district, perhaps a hotel would be appropriate.

Another consideration is Greeley's downtown, Biggi said. Whatever the future of the Greeley Mall property is, keeping downtown vibrant is a city priority, he said.

"The goal is, in our mind, to say, let the marketplace play out its wisdom," he said. "A lot of individuals are quite pleased with our willingness to collaborate and cooperate."

Foothills Mall in Fort Collins

Foothills Mall in Fort Collins dates back to 1972, 13 years before Twin Peaks Mall opened.

Foothills originally opened with two anchors, then two more were added later. Its last major remodel was in the mid-1990s, according to Josh Birks, economic adviser with the city of Fort Collins.

Foothills' owner, General Growth Properties, and the special purpose entity created to operate the mall both filed for bankruptcy in the middle of the Great Recession, but both emerged in October 2010, Birks said. With that unpleasantness passed, the city and the mall owner can once again start talking redevelopment of the property.

"There's been talk of redevelopment of Foothills Mall since General Growth purchased it in late 2004," said Birks, who joined the city in 2009. "Basically, they bought it with the intention of redeveloping it, repositioning it."

But General Growth, which owns malls all over the country, was over-leveraged, and when the recession hit in 2008 it quickly sent the company into bankruptcy. But the company is back, stronger than ever, Birks said, and its new CEO has made the declaration that he wants to make the company the premier mall owner/operator in the country.

The company, which owned nearly 200 properties at one time, has been unloading what it considers its non-core assets, Birks said, and Foothills is one the company is holding onto.

The pre-bankruptcy discussions between the city and the mall owner about redevelopment included studying the potential of what the property could become, and the city went so far as to create an urban renewal planning area, which includes the Foothills Mall property.

One thing the city discovered with those studies was that the best use of the property will continue to be as a retail center. Other parts of Fort Collins are better suited for mixed-use development, Birks said.

So while the city and property owner don't have specifics nailed down, the two sides generally agree what the next step is.

"The timeline is somewhat contingent on things that are out of General Growth's and the city's hands," he said. "And those are market conditions and retail action. ... I think this is easily a five-year process."

And the city continues to explore options with General Growth for financing a redevelopment, Birks said. Among the options being considered are using tax increment financing, creating a special metro district and/or creating a public improvement fund.

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